Film Discussion: Movie You Hate, and Things You Would Change To Make You Like Them (1 Viewer)

[Kevin M]

**************SPOILERS***********SPOILERS********* ****

The Two Towers: Faramir's personality change from the book was rather disappointing but I was even more upset that Jackson & Co. felt the need to turn the Ents into oblivious morons who don't even know that "Trees are being cut down!!" just to give Pippin & Merry something heroic to do...sorry but to any LOTR fan that is a pretty large alteration from the original story where the Ents are well aware of the killing of the trees (they do talk to trees after all) and in true Ent fashion they take a good while to get together and come to a decision to attack.

Apart from that my hat is off to Peter Jackson & while I understand his cinematic reasons for the changes he made for the movie the original story fan in me is still disappointed.

 

[Jim Williams]

I hated Pulp Fiction. I sat through this film and could not believe that it got the kind of critical acclaim that it received. Another film that wasted an hour and a half of my life is Eraserhead. I enjoyed Reservoir Dogs and Blue Velvet so it's not that I have anything against Tarantino or Lynch.

Films I loved:

Midnight Cowboy, The Godfather I & II, Apocalypse Now, The Wizard of Oz and Rain Man.

[edit] Oh yeah, I forgot to include Once Upon a Time in America.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Recast the Shirley Maclaine role with someone who can act. Or is at least interesting to look at. This could have been terrific with Monroe.

While I never thought I'd defend the often-annoying MacLaine, I felt she was superb in The Apartment. I think Monroe would have been HORRIBLY wrong for the part. To quote myself from my review:

"On the other hand, MacLaine was virtually perfect as Fran. I’ve never been a fan of her work, and I’ve usually openly disliked the woman. However, I must acknowledge that she was almost flawless as Fran. MacLaine nimbly communicated the wounded inner core of the character without becoming maudlin or excessively sentimental. She maintained a cold distance from the world, a tone that seemed absolutely appropriate for such a sad, hurt person as Fran. MacLaine also managed to keep her adequately chipper and lively when necessary, so Fran didn’t degenerate into an emotional mess.

Honestly, I was stunned by the caliber of MacLaine’s performance. I’ve known women like Fran, and the accuracy she lent to the role floored me. She nailed the part so well that it was genuinely spooky; there were times I felt as though I was watching those past acquaintances. How hammy old Liz Taylor beat her for Best Actress makes no sense to me."

 

[Brandon_T]

I really loved Mission to Mars until about the last half hour. Two years later, and I still haven't figured out how I would want the movie to end. It just seemed to me like they felt like they had to hurry up and wrap up the film and copped out on an ending. Maybe I am the only one!

Great discussion
Brandon

 

[Angelo.M]

DaveGR:

Frogs: um, yeah, well they just didn't strike the right chord with me, that's all. I like the film, and I like its post-modernist vibe, but the frogs pushed it a little bit into post-post-modernist territory, and I was derailed.

Colin:

I liked Road as well. I just didn't care for Jude Law. For my money, he just wasn't the correct choice for the role--I would have liked a larger-than-life villain (not the Joker from Batman, mind you). Somehow, he just felt wrong to me. And I do like him as an actor.

 

[Tim Glover]

Didn't hate Road To Perdition but hated the ending when Tom Hanks gets killed. Guess I didn't see it coming and I am sucker for happy endings...at least endings where I didn't feel robbed.


And agree with the changes for The Two Towers ...would have been a much better film without the Farimar changes, Gimli comic hour, and the fake Aragorn death sequence.

Also, I would have trimmed about 20 minutes of
Catch Me If You Can . Just needed a little fine tuning.

These are all just my humble opinions! :b

Dome, Great Thread.

 

[Johnny V]

***SPOILERS***

The one movie that comes to mind that I don't hate but thought could be changed to make it great was The Truman Show . I don't know exactly why, but I was really disappointed with the way this film played out. I think what would've made this film extraordinary would have been if the audience was in the same boat as Truman i.e. not knowing that it was all an experiment. Imagine watching the movie from the beginning and seeing all of the "weird" things that happen to Truman and not knowing the cause. This would allow the viewer to be taken on the same road to discovery that Truman does while not knowing the outcome already. Imagine the scene when he finally reaches the wall in the "ocean". If the viewer had no knowledge of the external situation, it would be a great WTF??? moment. Then you be realizing what's going on as the story unfolds. That would have made for a much more interesting movie IMO.

BTW, my favorite movie of all time is Pulp Fiction, and Memento is probably in my top 5, and I'm a Lynch fan, so you can see what kind of movies I really enjoy .

 

[JasenP]

Some films are simply beyond repair, case in point:

Magnolia

While a great film this could never be, here are a few suggestions I have for PT "Sophomore Slump" Anderson

Concentrate on fewer characters, your strokes were too broad. Broad enough to make me really not care about anyone in this film.

Remove the gawdawful sing-along, it's not only laughable it's lazy storytelling.

Please don't use big stars (Tom Cruise) in roles that actors should have been cast in. His scene chewing over-the-top performance was more distracting than a shirt full of fire ants.

There are many more but it'll never get fixed, so why dwell on it.

 

[Stevan Lay]

On a more recent film The Pianist - it would've added to the movie if the Polish, German, & Russian had spoke in their own language than in english. Was there any reason to that?

 

[Leo Kerr]

A couple of comments, some already said, others in contradition.

First, I realize there is a large audience who will cry "Blasphemy!" when I say it, but I liked the Parsons Project music in Ladyhawke. Granted, it takes you a bit by surprise at first, but it isn't as all bad as most people make it to be.

Second, I can cope with Faramir in Two Towers. I can cope with a lot of other problems in that film. I don't really care for the fake Arwen/Elrond dramatic tension stuff going on. But Aragorn being saved by Willie the Wonder-Horse has just got to go.

And now for something completely different. Always. I rather liked most of the film. Brad Johnson's character, however, was an annoying ----. I don't have a problem with that, per se, but it leads me to another point.

Holly Hunter's character needs to die at the end. Just ditch the plane, have the scene where she sees Dryfus's character, reach out, touch, and black-out, roll credits.

Maybe even with another wake.


Leo Kerr
[email protected]

 

[Wayne W]

I'm going to chime in on Misery. I agree that they wimped out with the hobbling scene. I also think a voice over of some of Paul Sheldon's inner dialog would have been great. The book just seems 100 times more suspenseful because of everything going on in his head.

 

[JamieD]

There are many more but it'll never get fixed, so why dwell on it.

But that's why threads like this exist, right? Geez. Anyhoo, my last viewing of this thread. Sorry if I'm a thread crapper. I don't intend to be, I just never see much good coming out of these threads. Couldn't we instead discuss movies we love, and why, without someone having to negate what they say?

 

[Dan Rudolph]

Johnny, if you altered the Truman Show like that, what would the point be. The theme of exploitation in the name of entertainment only works if we know thhat's what's going on. Unless you want to come up with a replacement meaning, the Twilight Zone treatment just wouldn't work.

 

[Andy Olivera]

Re The Truman Show:

As Dan said, if changed in the way Johnny discribes it would become a different film entirely. It could work, but if it meant giving up the version we have now, I'd say it's not worth it. If you want to see a film along these lines, rent Open Your Eyes...

Re Magnolia:

Very simple: if you didn't love this film, there's nothing you could change about it to make it more appealing. If you love it, fine; if you hate it, fine. It can't be "fixed", though, because there's nothing inherently wrong with it...

 

[David Von Pein]

Re. The Apartment, 1960s winner of Best Picture......

Failing that, cut most of the film out, leaving just the bits with Fred MacMurray.

Yeah...that should make a very engrossing 12-minute motion-picture experience.

I liked both Shirley & Jack in the film.

 

[JasenP]

Very simple: if you didn't love this film, there's nothing you could change about it to make it more appealing. If you love it, fine; if you hate it, fine. It can't be "fixed", though, because there's nothing inherently wrong with it...

Of course I wasn't suggesting that my opinion was fact, that is always a problem with these types of discussions...

It's doubly interesting for me to discuss Magnolia because people feel very strongly one way or another, I've never met anyone who was "on the fence" about it. Some see it as a work of brilliance while some see it as a dissapointing, poorly-written, soap opera.